Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Today, Congressman Conyers sent a dear colleague letter to all members of Congress, urging them to support a resolution calling for the federal government to take steps to counter anti-Muslim sentiment

Latest News: The Council on American-Islamic Relations, Customs Agents Detain, Question Muslims For No Reason. The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a news release Wednesday that it will file federal complaints. The following link is to a video detailing this development:http://www.clickondetroit.com/video/27300254/index.html

Dear Colleague:

Please join us as an original co-sponsor of the resolution expressing the sense of Congress that the federal government should take steps to counter anti-Muslim sentiment. Over the last decade, the American Muslim community has confronted a festering level of suspicion which has manifested itself in hostile government policies and bias from the general public. A CBS/ New York Times poll released in mid-September showed that as many as 20 percent of Americans said they have negative feelings toward Muslims because of the September 11th terrorist attacks. While Congress has confronted some of the more violent manifestations of this bias, the general climate faced by the community has continued to create barriers to full participation in public life that should be addressed by official government policy. (More)

At the pulpit of an inner-city Chicago mosque, the tall blond imam begins preaching in his customary fashion, touching on the Los Angeles Lakers victory the night before, his own gang involvement as a teenager, a TV soap opera and then the Day of Judgment.

"Yesterday we watched the best of seven ... . Unfortunately we forget the big final; it's like that show 'One Life to Live,'" Imam Suhaib Webb says as sleepy boys and young men come to attention in the back rows. "There's no overtime, bro."

The sermon is typical of Webb, a charismatic Oklahoma-born convert to Islam with a growing following among American Muslims, especially the young. He sprinkles his public addresses with as many pop culture references as Koranic verses and sayings from the prophet. He says it helps him connect with his mainly U.S.-born flock. (More)

Editor's Note: This piece comes from a new CNN special "Stories: Reporter." Tune in Saturday at 7:30PM EDT to see the full story.

Philadelphia (CNN) -- Listen to the FBI and you will know that violent crime dropped over almost the whole country last year; murder, aggravated assault, forcible rape. Listen to people in some parts of Philadelphia and you will know that the Northeast is not part of that trend. Here the numbers keep climbing.

Violence comes to their streets as surely as sunset. Abandoned houses share corners with makeshift memorials to victims; often young men who get caught up in events they don't anticipate and can't escape.

"Around here it's not every safe to walk up the streets," one kid said. "Someone could come up to you and start shooting at you for no reason; just 'cause you're from that 'hood."

That is why Imam Suetwidien Muhammad chose this place to start hitting back.

"I came up in this neighborhood," he said sitting in the morning sun on the steps of a former plumbing supply warehouse. "This neighborhood was averaging six murders a month. There was a lot of violence, a lot of trash. We needed to bring about change."

So 10 years ago he started Masjid Muhammad of Philadelphia, a mosque in the old rundown warehouse. As he sat and explained how the mosque had grown to 500 members, workers above him pushed and slapped stucco into the three story stone facade above him. They started by fixing up the inside so people could have a safe place to come and pray.

Congregants said the place perennially smells like fresh paint because the imam is always busy fixing or improving something.

Inside the doors from what was once the plumbing supply loading dock are a small deli, a barber shop, a hair salon, a restaurant and a sprawling prayer space. But Imam Muhammad's pride and joy is upstairs, above the worship space; a boxing gym where the children of the neighborhood come every day ... .

The young boxers are a range of ages. Some were raised Muslim, some Christian, some follow no faith, but all are welcome. The lessons are free and not just about boxing. Imam Muhammad talks endlessly about discipline, respect, education and commitment; about young people turning into responsible adults. (More)

The relationship between the Jewish and Muslim communities is often portrayed as one of enmity and opposition. In reality, this is just not true. Both Jews and Muslims are adherents of monotheist, Abrahamic religions that have a great deal in common.

Perhaps more importantly, American Jews and Muslims share the experience of living as minority communities within the larger fabric of American society. For many of our ancestors, the freedom of religion and expression afforded by the U.S. Constitution played a pivotal role in informing their decision to emigrate to our great country.

David Horowitz has claimed that opposition to A.S. funding for his upcoming speech is rooted in a desire to silence him and curtail his right to free speech. The truth is that we merely oppose the use of student funds to subsidize bigotry and prejudice. (More)

SEE ALSO:

NEW BOOK EXAMINES MUSLIMS, JEWS -- AND THEIR COMMON GROUND - TOPEmma Silvers, San Francisco Jewish Community Publications, 5/27/11

Last summer, as the debate over the Islamic community center near ground zero reached a fever pitch, longtime friends and former classmates Reza Aslan and Aaron Hahn Tapper were watching, fascinated.

"There were some Jewish organizations coming down on the rights of Muslims to build that center, and then some other Jewish organizations were coming out in favor of it -- and criticizing those other organizations -- and it just seemed like such a perfect example of how complex that relationship really is," said Aslan, an internationally acclaimed religious scholar, writer and professor at U.C. Irvine. "That was a moment where we thought, 'It's time for this kind of book.' "

"Muslims and Jews in America: Commonalities, Contentions and Complexities," a collection of essays by preeminent religious leaders, thinkers and innovators -- eight of them Muslim, eight Jewish -- is the result of a longstanding friendship between Aslan and Tapper. (More)

Granted, this would be considered self-evident by most of us, but it has been a matter of great controversy in the Tennessee town of Murfreesboro, where 17 people went to court last year to prevent a group of Muslims from building a mosque. On their own land.

The need to defend this fundamental right was only one of the ordeals visited upon the Muslims of Murfreesboro, who have also faced threats, vandalism and arson. As recently, vividly illustrated in "Unwelcome: The Muslims Next Door," a troubling CNN documentary, the antagonists here are a clownish band of bigots scared witless by the prospect that a new mosque will be built in their community by a congregation that has already worshipped in said community for 30 years.

Seriously. You can't make this stuff up.

The 17 had contended Muslims have no constitutional freedom to worship because Islam is not a religion. So the statement at the top of this column represents not just self-evident truth, but an actual ruling last week by an actual judge in an actual court. Again: seriously. Chancellor Robert Corlew, the aforementioned actual judge, was obliged to verify that Islam -- which has survived 14 centuries, and claims a billion and a half adherents -- is a religion. (More)

May 27 (Bloomberg) -- Nicholas Kaiser, chairman of Saturna Capital Corp. and manager of the Amana Income Fund, talks about investing according to Sharia law. Kaiser speaks with Lisa Murphy on Bloomberg Television's "Fast Forward." They spoke on May 23.

And with this growth comes more diversity: In the last 10 years, populations in almost every racial group in the city have grown.

As our neighbors become increasingly different from ourselves, there needs to be more of an effort among us to understand each other. We need to learn what we have in common and let that bring us together rather than allow our differences to drive us apart.

On Monday, a Redmond resident found a note stuck to her vehicle stating, "We don't (want) Muslims in America" in English and "We don't want Muslims in our country, go away," in Arabic.

The woman, who is Muslim and wears an Islamic head scarf, had entered a Starbucks in town with her 9-year-old daughter for about 10 minutes and found the message -- written on a sticky note -- when they returned to their vehicle. (More)

An early-morning fire that burned down a Stockton mosque last month was the work of an arsonist, fire investigators said Wednesday.

They announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for the April 23 blaze that destroyed the Masjid Al Emaan Mosque at 4212 N. Pershing Ave. in central Stockton.

Also damaged were adjacent businesses -- Reliance Real Estate Office and Living Well Ministries and Christian Center.

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives joined the investigation with the Stockton Fire and Police departments. There were no injuries and the fire damage was estimated at $400,000, ATF spokeswoman Helen Dunkel said.

The ATF released footage from a video taken in the mosque of an image of a person wearing a bag over his or her head, entering just after 3 a.m. (More)

In less than two weeks, former Godfather's Pizza chief executive Herman Cain will return to Iowa as a participant in a religious conservative group's presidential lecture series. For now, however, he is traveling the nation as a GOP presidential candidate and speaking with conservative-friendly media outlets in hopes of lessening the damage his remarks concerning Muslims have caused.

On Tuesday, Cain appeared on out-going Fox News host Glenn Beck's radio program, and reiterated his belief that earlier comments he had made about Muslims had been "misconstrued."

"I immediately said, without thinking, 'No, I would not be comfortable.' I did not say that I would not have [Muslims] in my cabinet. If you look at my career, I have hired good people regardless of race, religion, sex gender, orientation and this kind of thing."

When Cain was approached by a Think Progress blogger in Des Moines following a late March Conservative Principles Conference, however, he was very clear.

... Would you be comfortable appointing a Muslim, either in your cabinet or as a federal judge?

Cain: "No, I would not. And here's why. There is this creeping attempt, there is this attempted to gradually ease Sharia law and the Muslim faith into our government. It does not belong in our government ... . The question that was asked that 'raised some questions' and, as my grandfather said, 'I does not care, I feel the way I feel.' ... " (More)

President Barack Obama's 45-minute Arab Spring speech at the State Department last week signaled some hope and a potential new direction to U.S. policy in the Mideast and in North Africa. But then again, he delivered something similar almost two years ago inCairo only to disappoint Arabs and Muslims around the world later with a lack of clear, concrete action to match his rhetoric. So we can only wait and see if there is any substance to the hype. (More)

Mohebi is the executive director for the San Diego chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. He may be reached at hmohebi@cair.com

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Rep. Michael Grimm addressed approximately 300 members of the borough's Muslim community today during a forum at Masjid al-Noor mosque in Concord.

Grimm (R-Staten Island) spoke for about 15 minutes during the Friday prayer congregation. Afterward he had lunch with the group.

"This is a great community on Staten Island. They've been here for generation," Grimm said afterward. "This community, and others like them, they are the most powerful force fighting terrorism." (More)

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

(SEATTLE, WA, 5/24/11) -- The Washington state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-WA) today said that a hate message was left on the car of a Muslim family.

CAIR-WA said a Muslim mother reported that she found the message -- which stated, "We don't [want] Muslims in America" in English and "We don't want Muslims in our country, go away," in Arabic -- stuck to the family's vehicle when she returned to it Monday afternoon after visiting a Redmond, Wash., Starbucks. The Muslim mother, who was with her 9-year-old daughter at the time of the incident, wears an Islamic head scarf.

According to the police report of the incident, the daughter began to cry because she was afraid they would be followed and attacked by the person who left the hate note.

Earlier this month, CAIR's Michigan chapter called on state and national law enforcement authorities to investigate as a hate crime an incident in which a vehicle was vandalized and defaced with the phrase "f*ckin sand n*gger."

"The targeting of ordinary Muslims going about their business in their daily lives is a disturbing trend that needs to be addressed by our nation's leaders," said CAIR-WA Executive Director Arsalan Bukhari. "We urge state and federal authorities not to view this as a 'minor' incident and ask that it be investigated as a hate crime that has had a negative impact on a Muslim family."

He warned of the "mainstreaming" of anti-Muslim hate and noted that a coalition of some 60 interfaith and community leaders recently asked Everett Community College in Everett, Wash., to drop an Islamophobic speaker scheduled to appear Thursday as part of an "Islam in America" lecture series.

CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

In late January 2001, the day after George W. Bush was sworn into office, a group of conservative politicos including recently retired House Speaker Newt Gingrich gathered at Grover Norquist's Washington, DC, office for a meeting with influential faith leaders.

That, in itself, was hardly newsworthy. Bush had swept into office on the backs of values voters. But the gathering wasn't catering to evangelical Christians; the purpose was to discuss a variety of issues of concern to American Muslims--everything from political appointments, to civil liberties, to a Ramadan postage stamp. It was organized by the Islamic Institute, a think tank founded by Norquist, the conservative anti-tax crusader, and the guest list was culled from the ranks of Muslim–American organizations and community leaders. By some estimates, Muslims had turned out in huge numbers for Bush; at least one prominent Republican credited them with making the difference in Florida.

But those days are over, and if the rhetoric from the current crop of candidates is any indication, there's little hope for a rebound in 2012. Since 9/11, Republicans have turned a once-promising--and rapidly growing--voting demographic into a punching bag. Lately, Republican lawmakers across the country have further antagonized their Muslim constituents by pushing quixotic legislation to ban Islamic sharia law from being used in state courts. Even the founder of the group Muslims for Bush, Colorado GOPer Muhammad Ali Hasan, left the party, citing frustration with its newfound anti-Muslim "bigotry."

Now, as Republicans head full-steam into the nominating process, they face a choice: Tone down the rhetoric, or risk permanently alienating a community that's expected to double in size over the next two decades.

"[Republican candidates] have not reached out to me, and I'm not aware of any efforts that they have made to reach out to other community leaders," says Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), who attended Norquist's meeting. "From 2000 until now, there's been a huge difference in terms of what kind of relationship we have with them. Their ability and desire to reach out to the Muslim community is almost like night and day." (More)

A national Muslim civil rights group is asking the head of Homeland Security to investigate the use of stereotypes after a man who appeared to be of Middle East descent was used in a recent security drill at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on Monday renewed a request that Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano review "the use of outside trainers who offer hostile, stereotypical and grossly inaccurate information about Muslims and Islam."

The organization has previously asked the Obama administration, the Department of Defense and Congress to provide oversight for apparent "widespread anti-Muslim bias in the training of law enforcement and security and military personnel nationwide." (More)

The Department of Homeland Security this month paid $5,000 to anti-Muslim terrorism "expert" Walid Shoebat to speak at a conference for South Dakota law enforcement, despite Shoebat's history of dubious claims about the threat of Islam as well as his own background.

That $5,000 figure was unearthed by a public records request filed by Rapid City Journal reporter David Montgomery. Shoebat is an evangelical Christian whose website describes him as a "former PLO terrorist [who] now speaks out for USA and Israel."

However, as Hussein Ibish and others have documented, Shoebat's claims about his past are largely unsubstantiated, down to whether his real name is really Walid Shoebat. He, for example, claims that, in his Islamic extremist days in the 1970s, he threw at a bomb at a Bethlehem bank. But the bank says it never happened, and there are no news reports of any such terrorist attack. Surveying Shoebat's history of questionable claims, Ibish concludes that he is a "shameless fraud."

It is beyond dispute that Shoebat holds views of Islam well outside the mainstream. He told a Missouri crowd in 2007 (via Nexis) that "Islam is not the religion of God -- Islam is the devil." He has also said President Obama is "definitely" Muslim. (More)

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CAIR-SAN DIEGO: U.S. MUSLIMS WANT TO BE PARTNERS WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT -TOPKristina Davis, San Diego Union Tribune, 5/22/11

They do some of the most important, clandestine law enforcement work in San Diego County, yet most of their dealings never make headlines.

The more than 100 investigators, FBI agents and intelligence analysts who are part of the local FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force are fine with that because it means they're doing their job -- thwarting terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.

"We disrupt things day in and day out," said FBI Special Agent Matt Brown, a supervisor in the multi-agency task force. "The vast majority of what we do is prevention." ...

Some in the Muslim-American community have criticized tactics they say counterterrorism officers use -- spying on mosques, pressuring people to become informants, threats of deportation.

A report released Wednesday by New York University's Center for Human Rights and Global Justice raised concern about how the FBI and New York police targeted Muslims, including paying informants to pose as radical Muslims and push ideas of violence.

"We want to be partners with law enforcement that tackles terrorism, but it seems like they are looking at us as suspects rather than partners," said Edgar Hopida, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in San Diego. "We are the first line of defense with regards to extremism and terrorism." (More)

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AMERICAN MUSLIMS TO RECORD ORAL HISTORIES WITH STORYCORPS JULY 4TH -TOP

WASHINGTON, May 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- My Faith My Voice (MFMV), a platform dedicated to promoting the grassroots voice of Muslims in America, announced today it will partner with StoryCorps, a national organization dedicated to preserving and sharing the oral history of America, on July 4th weekend in Chicago, Ill. The partnership will seek to humanize the American Muslim community and reflect the growing diversity of our country's national landscape.

The recordings, which will cover a variety of different topics, are meant to give people insight into the lives of American Muslims by allowing them a chance to listen in to personal conversations taking place between Muslims around the country.

StoryCorps interviews are conducted between two people who know and care about each other. A trained StoryCorps facilitator guides the participants through the interview process. At the end of each 40-minute recording session, participants receive a copy of their interview and a second copy is archived at the Library of Congress. MFMV will also release clips of the interviews on its site and make them available to the media. (More)

A pro Israeli advocate knocked a camera out of the hands of Alison Weir, President of the Council for the National Interest Foundation. The group just finished their press conference on what they call unjustifiable US Aid to Israel.

The two sides met when the Press Club scheduled a pro Israeli news conference to follow held in the same room. The altercation illustrates heightened tensions on differing views regarding America's relationship with Israel.

The Council for the National Interest Foundation wants Americans to know how much of their tax dollars are going to Israel.

21 LEADING AMERICAN MUSLIMS APPEAL TO AYATOLLAH KHAMENEI TO RELEASE AMERICAN HIKERS - TOPAmerican Muslim, 5/24/11

(Washington, D.C., May 24, 2011) American icon and boxing legend Muhammad Ali joined ISNA and other prominent U.S. Muslim representatives and clergy to make a public appeal today to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei, to release American hikers Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal after nearly 22 months in prison.

Ali, a three-time World Heavyweight Champion, and his wife Lonnie joined some of America's most respected Muslim leaders, members of Bauer and Fattal's families and released hiker Sarah Shourd at a news conference in Washington, D.C., where they urged Ayatollah Khamenei to free the two men in the Islamic spirit of mercy and compassion. (More)

WASHINGTON - Fusing the piety of Islam with the celebrity of boxing champ Muhammad Ali, the mothers of American hikers Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer today beseeched Iran to release their sons after 22 months in prison.

The pair have been imprisoned in Tehran on charges of entering the country illegally to commit espionage.

Against a banner emblazoned "662 Days Without Freedom" - and with a mute but imposing Ali in dark glasses to their right - Laura Fattal, of Elkins Park, and Bauer's mother, Cindy Hickey, of Minnesota, said the charges against their sons are baseless.

"Shane and Josh are innocent and have suffered long enough," said Hickey, her voice thick with emotion. "Life has continued on around us while we remain frozen in time."

Said Fattal: "Iran's indecision and delay have taken a terrible toll - on them and on us."

But an Iranian Foreign Ministry official hinted today the prosecution of the two would proceed, saying that calling them hikers was a "joke," according to the Associated Press.

The mothers were surrounded by leaders of the Islamic Society of North America, the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, the Universal Muslim Association of America and the Council on American Islamic Relations, who in a letter to Iran's Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei asked for "compassion and mercy." (More)

Monday, May 23, 2011

President Obama was at Miami Central High School recently to promote his school reform agenda. In news accounts reported across the country he pointed to academic improvements at Miami Central in support of a trinity of "reform" claims. First, that it is schools that make the difference in student achievement; second, that teachers and principals make the biggest difference in whether or not students in a particular school succeed (although lip service is paid to students and parents as being partners); and finally, that current testing and accountability programs can show us which schools need to be "reconstituted." Out with the old, in with the new.

What follows is what I wish the media would do instead of simply reporting the "facts" used in these campaigns. Our fourth estate should not just parrot promoters of particular policies, but should instead seek to provide a deeper context for the overall message being promoted. Miami Central was used to illustrate that the key components of this (and the last) administration's education policies are, in fact, grounded in the real world of education.

A speaker at a Homeland Security conference in Rapid City whose remarks about Muslims sparked controversy earlier this month was paid $5,000 plus expenses for his appearance.

The Rapid City Journal originally requested the fee amount immediately after the May 11 event, but Alexa White, assistant coordinator of Rapid City-Pennington County Emergency Management, denied the request. The Journal subsequently filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act with White, who released the fee information May 19.

The speaker, Walid Shoebat, is an author and professional speaker who says he is a former terrorist in the Palestine Liberation Organization. Now converted to Christianity, Shoebat says that terrorism is inherent in Islam.

His appearance at a state-sponsored conference attended by law enforcement was criticized by local Muslims and by national organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the American Civil Liberties Union. . .

The money for the honorariums came from the federal Department of Homeland Security.

WASHINGTON, May 6, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is calling on the South Dakota Department of Public Safety (DPS) to drop its endorsement of a national security conference featuring Walid Shoebat, a notorious Islamophobe who claims "Islam is the devil" and that President Obama is a Muslim.

CAIR said the DPS' continued sponsorship of the 2nd Annual South Dakota Homeland Security Conference to be held next week in Rapid City, S.D., would send the message that the department endorses Shoebat's anti-Muslim views.

The Washington-based Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization also expressed concern that law enforcement personnel -- including FBI agents -- who attend the conference will apply Shoebat's extremist views in their security investigations and in interactions with American Muslims.

. . .Shoebat once told a Missouri newspaper that he sees "many parallels between the Antichrist and Islam" and "Islam is not the religion of God -- Islam is the devil." (Springfield News-Leader, 9/24/07)

In a YouTube video, Shoebat said, "[I]f Islam is not playing the major role in Antichrist spirit, why do you think the devil wants to appoint somebody connected to Islam in theWhite House?" He told radio host G. Gordon Liddy, "No one is called Hussein unless he is Muslim. So it is very clear that Barack Hussein Obama is definitely a Muslim."

For 10 years, a religious separatist group led by John Joe Gray, a self-proclaimed "freedom fighter," has been barricaded behind locked gates at a remote 47-acre compound along the Trinity River in Trinidad. They've warned that any law enforcement agents who attempt to come onto the property would be shot. John Joe Gray burns a copy of the Koran with his granddaughter Jessica on Wednesday, May 18, 2011. Star-Telegram/Joyce Marshall)

The Kingsport man is a conservative Christian who wants the government to keep its hands off his wallet and his personal life. And that's why, he said, a bill in the TennesseeLegislature that originally targeted supporters of Islamic law is a bad idea for Tennessee. State officials could have used the bill to punish unpopular groups, he said.

Today, that's Muslims, he said. Tomorrow, that could be the Tea Party. He pointed to a 2009 report by the Missouri Information Analysis Center, funded in part by theDepartment of Homeland Security, that labeled Ron Paul supporters as potential terrorists.

"If you don't like the ideas that someone supports, how is that illegal?" he said. (More)

It appears McCarthyism is creeping into the state Senate through Sen. Bill Ketron, ranking member of the Rutherford County delegation.

U.S. Sen. Joe McCarthy targeted alleged communist sympathizers in the early 1950s amid the Cold War, marking one of the most embarrassing episodes in American history, and now Ketron is lining up his own easy target — Muslims. (More)

Herman Cain, the Godfather's Pizza CEO and Republican who already declared he wouldn't appoint a Muslim cabinet member or judge, formally announced his presidential bid on Saturday, before an alleged crowd of 15,000. (More)